Abstract

The ICC will gain the capacity to prosecute the cr
ime of aggression in 2017.
The A
mendments to the Rome Statute are the product of a political
compromise and have a complex legal structure with a high definitional
threshold for an act of aggression alongside a bespoke jurisdictional
arrangement.
This legal structure is likely to mean that very few acts of
aggression are considered crimes. Even wh
en acts of aggression pass the
threshold set out in the amendments
,
it is highly likely that any such
prosecution would not succ
eed. This paper argues that this
is likely to
significantly impact the legitimacy of the I
CC as an organiz
ation
. To
understand
this
,
it is necessary to look at the different meanings of
legitimacy before examining how the way
in which
the law is configured
could undermine the pol
itical legitimacy of the organiz
ation as a whole.